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One year, after three cities and seven moves

It’s already been a year, and I can’t believe it. Today is the second of my two first anniversaries — June 30 was a year in Edmonton, and today is a year at my current job. Maybe that’s not a big deal for most people, but for someone who has moved through three cities in one-and-a-half provinces (the closest I got to Saskatchewan was a block from the border, though my office was in Saskatchewan), resulting in seven moves in four years, staying in one place for a year is huge. Planning to stay for even more years — which I am — is even bigger (and scarier).

Plus, after a year in Lloydminster, I was starting to look to leave the job that I was at (though it would take another six months). That’s not the case here, and it can’t be illustrated more perfectly than an exchange that happened last week on vacation with a friend.

I’d already asked that we detour through downtown to check out one of their arts buildings because it’s relevant to my job, which was fine and made sense. A couple days later, we were walking through Golden Gate Park, and came upon a statue of Verdi. I got really excited and exclaimed to K. that it was pretty cool to come across a random statue of Verdi where you would least expect it, and she’s looking at me like I’m crazy. So I had to explain that he was an opera composer, and it’s the 200th anniversary of his birth this year, in October. Her response? “You’re pretty passionate about your job, you know?”

It’s a little weird, but yeah, I am. When I was offered the position, I knew of at least two friends who told me that they had heard of the posting, but they thought they wouldn’t like the work, so they didn’t apply for it. Yes, I was unsure too, but I love it. I have to learn crazy facts that I would never bother with otherwise, which means I do get excited about a random statue of Verdi in San Francisco.

I started blogging when I was in Lloyd, and I know there are some posts that note my one-year blogging anniversary, one year of living on my own (not counting summers) and my one-year milestone of living in the Border City, with promises to blog about those thoughts. I never did, and yet, I’ve been excited about this anniversary (seriously) since about May.

This is the city that I want to be in, I’m lucky enough to work in my chosen field with some really smart people, and that I get to call some other really smart, interesting Edmonton people my friends on top of all of that.